1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of televisions, and more particularly to an improved device which may be associated with a rentable television to provide the viewer with immediate access to a first group of television channels, and selective access to a second group of additional television channels.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is common today for a patient to rent a television during the period of his hospitalization. At least one rentable television is typically found in each patient's room. Usually, these are installed and maintained not by the hospital, but by an outside business. The patient is usually afforded immediate access to certain free channels, which may carry educational programming and the like, but is charged a rental fee to view certain additional channels. The rental channels may carry cable-supplied or locally-broadcast entertainment programming, for example. As used herein, the "first group" of channels is intended to refer to those channels to which the viewer is entitled to free access, and the "second group" is intended to refer to certain other channels, in addition to the free channels, to which the viewer may have access upon payment of a rental fee. The number and relative spacing of the channels in each group may be readily varied. For example, channels 3 and 6 might be the two free channels of the first group, and channels 4, 8, 9 and 11 might be the four rental channels of the second group.
In the hospital environment, the television is usually mounted in an overhead out-of-the-way location, and typically includes a remote hand-held control unit connected to the television by an umbilical cable. The hand-held unit may contain a volume control and a push-button channel selector switch. When the channel selector switch is closed, an appropriate channel change mechanism or switch causes the television to index sequentially through the channels. One channel may represent the "off" position of the television. Hence, to turn the television "on", the patient need only depress the channel selector switch to index through the various channels until the desired channel appears. To turn the television "off", the patient merely depresses the channel selector switch to index to the "off" channel.
Heretofore, such rental televisions have been typically provided with a key-operated switch which could be selectively operated by a hostess between at least three positions. The first position interrupted power to the television, the second provided access to the free channels only, and the third position afforded access to the rental channels as well as the free channels. However, a patient desiring to view the rental channels usually had to await arrival of the hostess before the key-operated switch could be moved to the third position.
Others have attempted to develop suitable systems for allowing the patient to select immediate access to the rental channels in the absence of the hostess. One example of such earlier effort is shown and described in Sonnenberg U.S. Pat. No. 4,183,057. Basically, Sonnenberg provides an override circuit capable of by-passing the key-operated switch when the patient simultaneously depresses two push-button switches. Sonnenberg's device also activated a visual indicator to alert the hostess that access to the rental channels had been obtained.